Words For a Would be Prince
A Short Treatiste on the position of Prince---- This text was recently found in the blood-splattered haven of the recently killed Prince of Charleston, SC. It is believed to have been written by the Prince of Frankfurt, Germany, who was his Sire. It is provided here for your benefit. ---- Ensure Your Survival Don't Order Carryout You need to form a herd. This to the most intelligent thing to do. It will slow down the spread of any disease and makes it easier to feed quickly when you need to. The best method I have found, is to surrounds yourself with a lot of girlfriends (or boyfriends) and give them the Kiss in the middle of your passionate copulating. A little biting is considered kinky to some and common in some cases. The Kiss will be a fine substitute for incredible sex and they will soon become addicted to it, or at least develop quite a liking, which makes getting them into bed easier. Drain a little blood, only enough to keep you going, you don't want to over-tax your reserves. The resulting exhaustion or headache from loss of blood can easily be rationalized as good sex or a hangover. While you probably will stick to a few members of your herd, ALWAYS have a few secret people you can feed from, just in case an emergency arises and you need vitae quickly or worse, an enemy manges to kill off your main herd. ---- Don't Rely on Defenders, Be Able to Hold Your Own In A Fight Unfortunately, when your'e King-of-the-Hill, someone will eventually try to push you off. If you're a prince long enough, evenutally someone will come looking for your Throne. Learning how to fight is learning how to survive. Make sure you learn Fortitude, Celerity is a good idea as well. Learning Potence will help too. Firearms are great, but few things are more devastating than a club or a baseball bat, backed by Potence, that is intent on sending somebody into Torpor. The smartest thing to do is learn Protean, to get Wolves Claws. NOTHING is better for taking out an opponent than aggravated damage. ---- Always Have A Back Door To Leave By When things go wrong and the world comes crashing down around your ears, or you find yourself outclassed by someone tougher than you, be prepared. Always give yourself a back door out of whereever your haven is and a way to get away to secret hiding place. It's oftne a good idea to have a separate identity set up as well. Protean is good for this. Earth Meld or Mist Form have saved the lives of many Kindred and allowed them to fight another day. Unless the Justicars are around and crossing their path has been an unplaeasant experience for you, you're still Prince untll you're dead, even if it's just in name. The Princes of other cities will have to recognize you in exile, because if they don't, it could mean they could be deposed and dethroned. ---- There is Strength in Numbers Never be alone with anyone. If an assassination, staking, or forced blood bond is going to happen to you, it's going to be when you're by youself. Be vigilant in denying your enemies this opportunity. If there is always someone else with you, then you're perceived strength is increased. Many Kindred will also be hesitant to act violently toward you just because of the threat of witnesses. You are even safer in the company of an enemy than being totally alone. That is not to say you won't end up just as dead, but unless the two are allied, the aggessor should be reluctant to move against you. ---- Controlling Your Domain Please the Peasants Almost all Kindred, say ninety percent, really only want one thing anyway, that's to be left alone. The other ten percent want to be Prince themselves. The easiest way for the usurping ten percent to get your title, is to get the majority on their side is by appeasing them, giving them something they want. You must deny this approach to your enemies. One approach is to run a more lax, or lienent Princedom. Allow your subjects to do as they please so long as they uphold the Traditions, or at least not flaunt any transgressions. Every so often, some enemy will try take your throne (usually because of lienent policies). They will go around and start offering all your subjects, especially the Primogen, all the things strict Princes offer as rewards: larger hunting grounds, permission to make progeny, recognition, pardon for some past sin. Most often, your subjects will approach you and tell you what the interloper is trying. Since you have already freely given your subjects most of these things anyway, the usurper is offering them nothing in exchange for being subservient to him. Only a madman or a fool would trade freedom for servitude. ---- You Need Marshall Dillan Eventually, someopne will cause trouble. First, you're going to need to know about it and then you're going to need to deal with it. Unless you think you can be everywhere at once AND can fight like a Whirling Dervish, you need to appoint a Sheriff to help you. They will keep an eye and an ear out for you, as well as acting as an enforcer after you've made a decision. Look to your Primogen first, and to the rest of the Kindred community next. Anarchs can make good Sheriffs if no one else will do it. Most intelligent Anarchs will be willing to listen to you. A little integrity compromise may be necessary on their part, but if you give them what they want, usually allowing them a little more room to operate (i.e. stay out of their business), they'll help you out. Their motivation to help you is twofold, first, they improve their own lot, and second, whoever takes your place could be worse. The less intelligent, bully-like Anarchs are even easier to manipulate. Despite how much they say they hate the Prince and his authority, you'll be surprised how quickly the sellout and jump at the chance to be the Prince's man. Generally because this means the get to beat up people, in your name of course. Take the time to sit down with them, sympathize with their problems. Agree with whatever they say, and then mention how it would be nice if so-and-so weren't sobothersome, or would have an accident. Most of your more mindless and aggressive Anarchs are just looking for targets, they don't really care who. This way you can chose where their violence explodes and use them as a weapon, rather than having it directed at you. ---- Controlling The Kine All you need to do is control the Kine. That's what everybody tells you. Well, that's easier said than done. First, you must be careful about bloodbonding them. It roughly correlates into love for your average Kine and many of them have some strange ideas about love. You don't want a dozen Kine doing their impression of Glenn Close in Fatal Attraction for you. Use your Disciplines, Dominate and Presence will work best, but also think gaining some insight into them through Psychology first is advised. You don't want to drive people insane with continuous doses of Dominate that goes against their Nature. The next best thing is to direct control is to Dominate or bloodbond all the rich, powerful and important people in town and let them control the city and thus you control it through them. This scenario does have some benefits too, as nothing is in your name and few people will really know who you are. You'll be in the shadows, but you will still be running the show in the long run. ---- Important Things to Remember The Red Carpet Should Be Shaped Like a Funnel That new vampire who didn't present himself could be a Sabbat spy, Anarch on the run, Gangrel passing through, or any number of different things. It's your job to know he's there so you can guess at what he's up to. The first trick is finding them. Check for evidence of breaking the Masquerade, especially in feeding patterns. you've got to do that anyway. Have some ghouls watch the rack and other prime feeding grounds. Unless they've got Masquerade or Baby Face, Ghouls should be able to spot vampires at least half the time just by looks alone and without Auspex. Routinely check prime havens: warehouses, newly purchased buildings, sewers, motels, etc. You may have a lot of manpower tied up in nothing, but finding that one Sabbat haven before they're ready to act will be worth it. ---- Question All New Vampires Just because a vampire presents himself to you doesn't mean he's on the level. Always ask for references and check up on them. All Sabbat spies in my territory have tried to come in and pass themselves off as Camarilla neonates. Unpresented vampires are just too obvious for them to do otherwise. Beware wandering Gangrel neonates who nobody has ever heard of. Tell them to keep wandering and watch them till they've left and look for them coming back. If they really want to reside in your Domain and can't provide references to suit your satisfaction, tell them flat out that they'll have to find some other city or relent to Domination to tell you who they are, what sect they're with and if they're going to try to disrupt your Princedom. Even most Anarchs will agree that this is not too much to ask of an unknown vampire. You may be tempted to ask more once they've been dominated, but don't. See below. ---- Be Honest Build up a reputation for honesty so you can blow it on something big. Running things, making friends, and keeping from making enemies will be a lot easier if you do that. If you've got the power to hold the city by force, good for you. Otherwise you're going to need everybody to act along with what you say. A Prince without honor is a Prince without friends, allies, or credit. He also has a lot of enemies. This will also give you a card to play when all the chips are down and a turn of the tables is the difference to everything. If you don't understand this, don't go looking to be Prince. ---- Don't Act Stuffy If you go around and expect everybody to bow down to you and snivel, you're going to be disappointed. They're not going to do so honestly and most neutrals will side against you simply because they won't be able to stand your attitude. You may lose a little face with your clan and fellow, older, more powerful Princes, but they don't live in your city with you. Remember, honey gathers more flies than vinegar. ---- Don't Play By The Rules Now that you are a player in the vampire world, you have to learn the rules. Then you learn the loopholes, the different interpretations, and the cheats. Everybody else has. Just because you are dealing in good faith with somebody doesn't mean that you shouldn't have a sniper across the street or a Nosferatu following you just in case they aren't. Don't worry about offending anybody, if they get upset about you having backup when you said you'd be 'alone', then they're really naive or were just looking for a reason to harass you to begin with. Make deals and always prepare for them to fall through. When somebody tries to double cross you, double cross them first and twice as bad. ---- Act Firmly Just because I'm telling you pretty much to act like a nice guy even if you aren't. This doesn't mean be a wuss. Always act decisively. If you can't decide on a topic tell anybody questioning you that you are thinking in a firm tone that makes it clear that you are not to be questioned and talk about how a wise decision takes time. Stand by your decisions, but don't be afraid to correct yourself if you know you are wrong. Whatever you do, never make an idle threat. ---- Deny Everything If you ever get caught doing something, blame it on somebody else or say nothing. The elders, the Sabbat, the antediluvians, perhaps werewolves or mages. They all have a reason to be to blame. If you can't think of something good to say in order to blame somebody else, keep quiet. Most vampires, especially elders are very cautious and hesitant to act without hard evidence. If you have to speak the truth, stall as long as possible, then spill it all in one really quick sentence looking too eager to be telling it. If you can get them to doubt what you're telling them for just a minute even though it's the truth, you might confuse them long enough to get away. ---- Never Give An Order That Won't Be Obeyed This is the first rule any army officer or Prince should learn. The easiest way to control a city is to never have one of your orders disobeyed. Just deal with the fact that you are in a world full of other people with their own thoughts and feelings and that even your most trusted servant and ally won't follow every order that you give them. As long as you never tell them to do something that they won't do, then you remain in control. One of the easiest ways to do this is to figure out what you need done and who is to do it, then go to this person and ask their opinion. If they are favorable then command them to do it. If they are not favorable, drop the subject if you feel they would not carry out your orders. Either way they feel you are following their advice and have a sense of importance and respect from you. ---- Remember the Second Tradition Your word is law within your domain. No order which does not violate the Masquerade can be denied legally. This sounds good in theory but many kindred will violate this. Once somebody violates your orders, they are in violation of the Traditions. Once a member of the Kindred refuse to follow one order, rest assured that they will refuse to follow another and another. Warn them of what they are doing if you deem the situation resolvable, otherwise continue to give them other orders which they will refuse to follow with plenty of witnesses. Say nothing while you compile a physical punishment and then confront the transgressor, preferably while he is alone, with the evidence against him followed swiftly by the punishment. How reasonable the orders they did not follow out are will determine whether you will face fall out for punishing them. Be sure you have enough rope before you hang somebody.